Nobel Prize in Economics

So for those who missed it, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded last month to three Americans - Eugene Fama, Lars Hansen, and Robert Shiller "for their empirical analysis of asset prices."

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2013/press.html

I found this an interesting move because Fama and Shiller are at opposite ends of spectrum when it comes to their views on market efficiency (the former developed the efficient market hypothesis, while the latter is famous for his contributions to behavioural finance and identifying market inefficiencies). Meanwhile, you also have Hansen who developed the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM, a method for estimating the parameters in an econometric model) that has much wider applications for finance and economics. A bit of an assorted bag here.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen Shiller share the prize with Richard Thaler (a key figure in behavioural economics), but I guess that's my own bias given I have been researching behavioural economics for the best part of the last 12 months!

Anyone else have thoughts on the recent Nobel Prize announcement? Feel free to disagree.

Australian Households' Exposure to Banks

Here is a very interesting article courtesy of Brett Doran concerning the relatively high exposure of Australian households to bank securities. What implications do you see this having for fund managers or financial planners in the short and long term? Should we be concerned?

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/11/australian-households-ludicrous-exposure-to-banks/

Looking forward to reading your comments!

And We're Back!

Welcome back! The Griffith Economics Blog is up and running for the summer and you can expect more frequent posts in the coming weeks. Hopefully this blog will continue to generate some interesting discussion and give you some food for thought over the break.

Given that my time at Griffith is coming to an end this year, I am interested in having a few co-authors on board for next year who would be willing to start new threads in this blog on a relatively frequent basis. If you are interested, send me an email using your Griffith student email address to griffitheconomicsblog@gmail.com and let me know what you are studying and any ideas you would like to bring to the blog. It would be nice to get a mix of undergrads, honours, PhDs, and even recent Griffith graduates if possible!

I am also interested in exploring some different topics with this blog in addition to discussing recent economic news. Grad recruitment? Internship stories? Honours? Course selection? I am happy to share my personal experiences in this blog, and I am sure there are other readers prepared to do the same. Comment on this post or email me with ideas, please.